Kef Blades.......Oh how I want some, but my Dry Rot adventure has put pay to even dreaming.
I spent the morning listening to these wing-shaped beauties (white), which were on the end of a Linn Klimax DS/1 + Bi-amped Majiks (the Akurate was lent out).
It may seem strange to say that these £20k transducers are good value, but in the context of highend, they are (imo)......I have heard the likes of £30k Focals, and I much prefer these, in fact they can (imo) go head to head with most of what's out there, and are the best that I've heard, which includes the £70k Muons.
It's easy to see that this is where the R Series get their character from, but the Blades just do it sooo much better. They have crystal clear, but beautifully judged treble, which has no hint of grit, grain or forwardness. The mid-range is accurate and emotive, and the bass is powerful, clean and seismically deep..............these things just get out of the way of the music in quite a remarkable fashion, and the driver array is so "time aligned", that you can wander about and they still remain coherent. The remarkable thing was that it was all from "relatively" modest amplification, which just shows the potential they have......though the Klimax DS/1 remains the best digital source I've had the pleasure to hear, and undoubtedly had its part to play in the brilliance of the sound.
In the afternoon, I directly compared the R100s with the LS50s, which were on the end of a Linn Majik DSM. The R100s are great little speakers, but when the LS50s were swapped in, there was a very noticeable improvement in immediacy, punch and detail. They were just more accurate and controlled......my daughter who was with me, described it like the sound had jumped from 2D to 3D, as it just grabbed your attention and forced you to listen to them, like a persistent toddler tugging at your shirt sleeve.
To distill a £1m concept speaker to a £20k commercial one, is no mean feat, but its legacy is in the brilliance of the R Series, which gives the rest of us a taste of nirvana.
I spent the morning listening to these wing-shaped beauties (white), which were on the end of a Linn Klimax DS/1 + Bi-amped Majiks (the Akurate was lent out).
It may seem strange to say that these £20k transducers are good value, but in the context of highend, they are (imo)......I have heard the likes of £30k Focals, and I much prefer these, in fact they can (imo) go head to head with most of what's out there, and are the best that I've heard, which includes the £70k Muons.
It's easy to see that this is where the R Series get their character from, but the Blades just do it sooo much better. They have crystal clear, but beautifully judged treble, which has no hint of grit, grain or forwardness. The mid-range is accurate and emotive, and the bass is powerful, clean and seismically deep..............these things just get out of the way of the music in quite a remarkable fashion, and the driver array is so "time aligned", that you can wander about and they still remain coherent. The remarkable thing was that it was all from "relatively" modest amplification, which just shows the potential they have......though the Klimax DS/1 remains the best digital source I've had the pleasure to hear, and undoubtedly had its part to play in the brilliance of the sound.
In the afternoon, I directly compared the R100s with the LS50s, which were on the end of a Linn Majik DSM. The R100s are great little speakers, but when the LS50s were swapped in, there was a very noticeable improvement in immediacy, punch and detail. They were just more accurate and controlled......my daughter who was with me, described it like the sound had jumped from 2D to 3D, as it just grabbed your attention and forced you to listen to them, like a persistent toddler tugging at your shirt sleeve.
To distill a £1m concept speaker to a £20k commercial one, is no mean feat, but its legacy is in the brilliance of the R Series, which gives the rest of us a taste of nirvana.